This is the moment Priti Patel was ambushed by a group of protestors over her Rwanda migration policy while giving a speech at a Tory dinner on Friday night.
A video shared by campaign group Green New Deal Rising shows several protestors suddenly stand up one at a time to deliver a message to the Home Secretary.
The clip shows Ms Patel donning a pink dress as she approaches the podium at the Bassetlaw Conservatives Spring Dinner.
The cabinet minister manages to say: ‘Good evening everybody, I actually just want to start…’, before a protestor posing as a guest at the £40-a-head event suddenly stands up from her chair.
She shouts towards the stage: ‘Priti Patel your racist policies are killing people. Your plans to send people seeking asylum to Rwanda are inhumane, they’re inhumane and are going to ruin people’s lives.’
The demonstrator is then escorted by security, but then another woman stands up from her chair and continues the protest, saying young people are ‘disgusted’ by the controversial immigration policy.
As she is ushered out, yet another protestor gets up and brands the policy ‘cruel’, before they all begin chanting: ‘Out, out, out!’
A further man and woman get up from their chairs, shouting that the policy is ‘racist and problematic’ and ‘inhumane.’
The whole group can then be heard shouting: ‘Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here!’
MailOnline has contacted Green New Deal Rising for comment.
The group tweeted the video today, saying: ‘Last night we disrupted @pritipatel because her #Rwandaplan is cruel, morally bankrupt & it will cost lives.
We demand the Government drops this widely condemned policy & provides support for people seeking safety.
‘No matter where we come from, we all deserve dignity & respect.’
They added: ‘We’re sickened to see the Gov ramping up its hostile policies rather than helping those fleeing from war, poverty & extreme weather.
‘As climate change displaces entire communities, leaving people vulnerable to exploitation & violence, we MUST act with compassion.
‘And as a country with a long history of exploiting people and resources, the UK must recognise its responsibility.
We demand the Government drops this widely condemned policy & provides support for people seeking safety.
‘No matter where we come from, we all deserve dignity & respect.’
They added: ‘We’re sickened to see the Gov ramping up its hostile policies rather than helping those fleeing from war, poverty & extreme weather.
‘As climate change displaces entire communities, leaving people vulnerable to exploitation & violence, we MUST act with compassion.
‘And as a country with a long history of exploiting people and resources, the UK must recognise its responsibility.
The first migrants to be sent to the central African nation will be single men and it is expected that they will be notified by Home Office lawyers in the next few days, according to The Sun.
However, the flagship plan may not start for months in the face of legal action by human rights groups.
A Home Office source told the newspaper: ‘The first referrals will be going next week, so people will be put on notice.’
The Home Secretary’s team is ready for legal challenges, while Boris Johnson lashed out at ‘liberal lawyers’ for delaying his plan to send thousands of migrants from the UK to Rwanda – and vowed to ‘get it done’.
The Government had wanted flights to Kigali to start by the end of May under the £120million deal it secured with the Kagame government last month.
Under the partnership agreement, people arriving in the UK, including by crossing the Channel in small boats, will be flown 4,000 miles to East Africa if they are deemed to have travelled illegally for economic reasons rather than asylum.
But No10 said it could not put a timescale on when the scheme will begin. Last week two asylum seekers who came to Britain in the backs of lorries this year instructed lawyers to bring a legal challenge against the policy.
It comes as analysis of Government figures shows 7,240 people have reached the UK after navigating busy shipping lanes from France in small boats in just the past four months since the start of 2022.
They include almost 700 people who have crossed in the past week under favourable weather conditions.
Critics said the 11-day break had simply been due to the poor weather, and insisted that the Home Secretary’s Rwanda policy would not act as a deterrent to those seeking to reach Britain.
Anxious Border Force officials have now suggested that further delays to the Rwanda scheme will only embolden migrants to attempt the dangerous voyage, warning that the Channel crisis could ‘get worse before it gets better’.
The MoD took over control of migrant operations in April, when the Government also announced controversial plans to send some of those making the cross-Channel journey to Rwanda.